For younger students, or those starting on their coding journey: Design a digital museum to show what you know about Martin Luther King, Jr.

For advanced coders, or older students: Create a flag that represents the March on Washington

In this exercise, students will use a text based coding tool (javascript) to build a flag or poster, to commemorate the march that challenged the inequalities faced by African Americans at the time, that also saw the iconic “I Have A Dream” speech.

This awesome new learning game has just been added to BrainPOP and we just HAD to share it.

Your students can become wildlife DJs with Beastbox, an educational game that blends animals sounds and knowledge of their environments with some dope beats.

Wildlife DJ and beatboxer Ben Mirin travels the world collecting the voices of wild animals that catch his attention. Layering his own beatbox loops with his favorite animal voices, he makes music inspired by the ecosystems he visits.

Join the band (and don’t forget the headphones!)

Launch the Beastbox game and pick your band animals. They soon start to bust some sweet moves and beatbox together using samples of their real animal voices. All 5 will soon be cranking out a cool tune. Swap them in and out to see what sort of sound you can build.

But stop (hammer time)!

How do you unlock the special ecosystem tracks?

Do your research! Click the info icon next to each dancing beast to learn more about their real world counterpart, hear a recording of their voice, and most importantly, see which ecosystem they belong to.

Because to unlock a new ecosystem you need to group 5 animals from the same ecosystem into the same band.

There’s endless variety in the wild music your children can make and a whole world of animals to explore.

Other BrainPOP research resources

Take a browse through all our animals topics on our 'Diversity of life' page. Many of these resource collections will also discuss the evolution of individuals species.

The Hour of Code started as a one-hour introduction to computer science, designed to demystify "code", to show that anybody can learn the basics, and to broaden participation in the field of computer science. It has since become a worldwide effort to celebrate computer science, starting with 1-hour coding activities but expanding to all sorts of community efforts.

For 2018 the theme is “What will you Create” which is perfect for BrainPOP students!

Your students can choose a BrainPOP Scratch (block-based) or Vidcode (text-based) project for sixteen different topics across the curriculum, from Martin Luther King Jr. to DNA to Food Chains. All available for FREE until December 31st 2018.

To choose a project, visit Hour of Code and select BrainPOP from the “Created By” drop-down menu on the left. If your school already subscribes to Creative Coding, log onto BrainPOP and look for the Creative Coding tile on the right side of any topic page for the full coding experience.

Creative Coding Webinar

Join us on Tuesday, November 27th at 18:00 EST/23:00 GMT (if you can’t make it don’t worry it will be recorded and uploaded to the Educator’s blog) to hear how Certified BrainPOP Educator Nay Belaunzarán is successfully using Creative Coding in her classroom. Nay will share ideas for how to integrate coding into your curriculum — a perfect way to gear up for Computer Science Education Week.

Want to know more?

If you would like to add the full Creative Coding package to your current BrainPOP and/or BrainPOP Jr. subscription please let us know and we’ll get right back to you.

Learn what the name “Diwali” actually means, and see how the holiday reflects some of the most basic beliefs of the Hindu religion.

Explore some of the Hindu mythology behind Diwali, including the legend of the return of Rama and the worship of deities like Laksmi and Kali.

Discover many of the customs of Diwali, from the lighting of lamps and fireworks, to the taking of ritual oil baths and making delicious sweet treats.

We’d recommend asking students to create a concept map about Diwali. Maybe show how this holiday shares things with other holidays and celebrations, or spotlight some of the deities and show what ideas and values they represent.

As a fun homework piece or plenary activity, download and print our ‘Mehndi graphic organiser’ and ask your children to draw their own mehndi design.

Ever wondered what it would be like to walk around on Mars?

Schools around the globe will be celebrating World Space Week 2018, which begins on Thursday on 4th October.

World Space Week is the largest public space event on Earth with more than 3,700 events in 80 countries.

The 2018 theme of “Space Unites The World” seeks to be an "...international celebration of the contribution of space science and technology to the betterment of the human condition. "

It's the perfect time to study space, its exploration, and our place in the universe.

We’ve got a galaxy’s worth of classroom Space resources on both BrainPOP Jr. and BrainPOP to bring your lessons to life.

Subscribers can log in and start exploring right away (don’t have a password? Request a free trial). You’ll find a huge range of materials on a diverse set of topics from Jupiter to comets to Moon phases.

Mars is one of our most popular subjects so we thought it might be useful to give away a 3 part series of lesson ideas to support teaching about the famous Red Planet.

Here's an example of our Digitial Etiquette topic page, showing the the button that you would click to open the relevant Newslea article.

It will take you to a Los Angeles Times article called "Why emojis are a no-brainer for digital communication".

Take a look on the top bar. You see a drop down menu that allows you to dynamically change the text, by lexile level, to suit the child or class.

This means your students read and discuss the same content, while enabling individual students to access material at their specific reading level.

Here's some ways you can use our Newsela integration to improve your children's engagement with non-fiction texts.

1. Highlights and annotations

Select a word or sentence and the annotation tool pops up on the right hand side. Use this to highlight unfamiliar vocabulary, signal specific text structures like compare/contrast, and provide questions and prompts for discussion.

2. Multiple read-throughs

On a student's first read through focus on vocabulary and identify the purpose of the article.

On second read through Introduce a question and have students work with a partner to read again, annotating text that relates to the question as they read.

On third read have students individually look for additional evidence, perhaps providing writing prompts like:

According to the article . . .

The author bases this claim on . . .

The conclusion that can be drawn from the article is . . .

3. Use Newsela opinion articles to facilitate a debate in your class

Divide students into two groups and assign each group a side to debate.

Remind students to use facts from the article to support their arguments and encourage them to conduct further research as needed.

Prompt a class discussion after the debate.

4. Small Group Guided Reading

Gather a group of students who read at a same/similar reading level and briefly introduce the Newsela article, including the content of the text and some of the structural and vocabulary challenges.

Then have students read the text independently as you circulate, supporting individual students as needed.

Finally, bring the group back together to share common understandings and identify reading strategies they used.

5. Hone those listening and syntax skills

Read aloud a Newsela article to the class or small group to model engagement, fluency, and pausing for deeper comprehension. Demonstrate thinking aloud and engage students in prompted partner or whole class discussion. Hearing text read fluently is important for developing a sense for syntax, and for honing listening skills.

Sounds fancy!

It's an introductory course for BrainPOP teachers, to learn how our products and resources work and explore all the features.

But this isn't any ordinary course.

You literally use BrainPOP to learn about BrainPOP!

If that sounds meta, it is, but it's a lot more fun than clicking through a dull drill and test.

You will:

Watch an animated movie on how children learn with BrainPOP.

Take a Challenge to see how BrainPOP engages higher-order thinking with interactive assessment tasks.

Read an FYI all about the history, people, and technology behind BrainPOP.

Explore a Primary Source, examining documents from the BrainPOP archive. including the very first drawing of Moby!

Take a Quiz about BrainPOP's tools and features

Play the learning game Time Zone X, that focuses on 'Education through the ages'

Create a concept map in Make-A-Map to visualize thinking and connect ideas on the question "What is BrainPOP?".

Animate an interactive presentation with Make-A-Movie

How do I take the BrainPOP 101 course?

You need to have your own individual Teacher login. If you don't have one, then get in touch about activating this facility for your subscription. There's no cost, but we do need to get your consent to set it up.

Is it compulsory? Is it the only training on offer?

No, not at all. You can start and finish it in your own time. You'll see a progress bar at the top of your screen after you start it.

Make a digital museum to display what they have learned about the Mayan civilization

What's our approach to helping you teach coding?

Designed to seamlessly integrate with what you’re already teaching, Creative Coding makes it simple to introduce coding and provides students with the opportunity to “show what they know” in a whole different way.

We make coding part of what you're teaching, not a separate technology driven exercise.

Coding for All

Because they span the curriculum and provide multiple opportunities for differentiated instruction, our Creative Coding projects reach students with a breadth of needs, and at all levels. These projects:

Help your students build and demonstrate knowledge in a way that is personally meaningful to them, in a familiar environment

Guide and scaffold children and adults so that no technical background is needed

Reduce inequality in access to computer science instruction when worked into the school day

The two methods - block AND text based coding

The block- and text-based projects are developed based on Scratch and Vidcode.

Block-based coding, based on the Scratch visual programming language, is an effective way to introduce computational thinking that fosters creative expression and experimentation. Perfect for younger pupils, or those new to coding.

Text-based coding with Vidcode deepens that knowledge by inviting students to apply programming fundamentals to create projects using JavaScript, empowering them to show what they know about what they're learning in school.